[zaqokm]

> Once you can afford 3 people this can become a very effective way of ensuring 24 hour coverage.

How can you run 24/7 with 3 people ? In Australia that would mean you would have to be above the allowed 38 hour working week as it would be a 56 hour working week, overtime and possibly penalty rates would apply. Even if it is on call a lot of companies in Australia pay extra for that.

> Not to mention rates for a lot of those countries are cheaper then FTE's in the US

I do not know who you are employing in Australia but I would suggest that there is only about 5000 - 10000 USD p/a price difference for mid-level guys.

[jlawer]

> How can you run 24/7 with 3 people ? In Australia that would mean you would have to be above the allowed 38 hour working week as it would be a 56 hour working week, overtime and possibly penalty rates would apply. Even if it is on call a lot of companies in Australia pay extra for that.

You wouldn't do 24x7 with 3 people, but you could do 24 hours x ~5.5 days with the rest on call. You could cover all Business hours within the week. Secondly you don't bring engineers on as employees (that requires all sorts of legal & Tax liability). You hire them as self employed contractors. This works out great for them (they can claim all sorts of things as tax write-offs for their "business") and you get to avoid dealing with the bureaucracy.

> do not know who you are employing in Australia but I would suggest that there is only about 5000 - 10000 USD p/a price difference for mid-level guys.

Avoid Sydney & Melbourne.

A lot of people will take the opportunity to do this kind of work for a decent wage ($65k in Brisbane, $55k in regional centres). I know people who do this work, move to Thailand and live in luxury on similar dollars. Brisbane is one of the Red Hat support centres so there are plenty of engineers moving on from lowish salaries offered.

Not to mention once US interest rates start going up the AUD is set to start dropping again.

[zaqokm]

> You wouldn't do 24x7 with 3 people, but you could do 24 hours x ~5.5 days with the rest on call.

Thanks, I hope I didn't sound too harsh as I just wanted to understand how you were doing this.

> You hire them as self employed contractors.

If you are an Australian company you may want to be careful with this. A contractor is not necessarily a contractor in Australia, there are some strange guidelines as to when a contractor may actually become an employee.

> A lot of people will take the opportunity to do this kind of work for a decent wage ($65k in Brisbane, $55k in regional centres).

I worked in Brisbane for 12 years and that sounds about right. Although the need for Linux admins seems to be increasing so there is some interesting salaries being offered.

> I know people who do this work, move to Thailand and live in luxury on similar dollars.

One can only dream, although I now live and travel around Asia .... I am just missing the $$$ :)

[jlawer]

> I just wanted to understand how you were doing this.

Well actually I am not doing it anymore. It turns out that the when the GFC hit the startup I was working for went under. So did a lot of places and I had trouble finding work. Now I have more family commitments I am a working peon for a small digital marketing company.... but there are days I wish I was back doing that kind of work again.

> If you are an Australian company you may want to be careful with this. A contractor is not necessarily a contractor in Australia, there are some strange guidelines as to when a contractor may actually become an employee.

Yeah this really only works if the contractor is working for a non-australian company. Then they are liable for their own super / tax / etc. Its a bit of a hassle, but a good tax accountant will get it sorted and reduce your liability at the same time. Contractor gets to write off their home (where they do the work), their tech, and more. Government hasn't really cracked down on it, because its an export business and your helping the economy.

>I worked in Brisbane for 12 years and that sounds about right. Although the need for Linux admins seems to be increasing so there is some interesting salaries being offered.

Unfortunately not as much as I would like... seems between a lot of "cloud first" outsourcing and the fact that linux / unix roles tend to be in HQ (i.e. in Sydney or Melbourne for aussie companies) the linux roles tend to be limited.

On the other hand PHP/Web/.Net developers with linux knowledge is in demand. (Quite strange the .Net developer with linux server experience, but just check seek.com.au and you will find them).

Brisbane is and it appears always will be a MS town. 80% of systems roles are Windows/Cisco/VMware focused. Smaller guys tend to be more Linux / Mac OS based, but then you end up with hybrid roles where your also 15 other roles.